Avid Pro Audio Community - Seven most popular issues

Well this is my 1000th post (no where near the 11,800 plus for spkguitar but its still a milestone for me). To mark this post I felt that I get a little latitude to express my thoughts a little.

First, I’d like to thank all the wonderful folks here that have provided endless help to me when I run up against an obstacle or two. More often than not, I come here first before calling Digidesign. It’s not knocking on Digidesign’s customer support but they’re pretty busy and I get a pretty quick response here. I feel a good sense of community with these folks as I try to answer other user’s questions while I’m on this board too.

Secondly I’d like to encourage the “Newbies” here that are struggling through issues that seem like no other applications have to deal with. Protools is a different animal and has stricter hardware and software requirements than most. I appreciate those that have honest problems and are frustrated but seek help here.

Now here are few observations that I see here and at times get frustrated with. These are just my opinions and you can ignore them as such if you like.

1) Do a search for your particular problem before posting. Some issues are addressed many times per week. I myself repeat the answers time and time again so that people won’t think that no one is listening or responding here.
2) The power harness issue on Digi002’s and Digi002R’s. This is a known problem and is easily fixed. The interface doesn’t connect and the red mute light stay’s on while soft clicking is heard inside. It is caused by oxidization on the connection points on the wire harness. Simply open up the unit by removing the many small screws and wiggle the connections. Place a telephone call (not email) to Digidesign customer service and tell them your issue and once they determine this is your problem, they will ship you a free replacement power harness to install.
3) Recording to the single system drive. How many times have we seen this one? Buffer errors and performance problems are almost always traced back to hard drive performance. Digidesign recommends (and I insist) on using a physically separate 7200 RPM hard drive for your recording drive. If you must use an external drive, it should be a firewire drive (not USB2.0 please).
4) Compatible Chipset. This one is posted here more often than just about every other topic. I suppose most other applications do not care what chipset you use but Protools LE is absolutely picky about this. Don’t buy a computer for Protools until you check this out.
5) Processor Selection. It still amazes me that we get people here that try to use a Celeron, Duron, Turon, Sempron, etc. processor with Protools. Don’t even try. Get the fastest processor you can buy or save up for it. Protools is a power hungry monster and that is a fact.
6) Don’t use Windows Media Center Edition. It doesn’t work for Protools for most people and those that do have unexpected results. Buy a new hard drive and install Windows XP pro or Windows XP home. At the time of this post Windows Vista does not work with any version of Protools through 7.3.x (Updated: Protools 7.4 supports Miocrosoft Windows Vista (32-bit only). Although Digidesign is only certifying Ultimate Edition and Business Edition, Folks have reported that Home Premimium Edition seems to work well too. No word on Home Basic however. Unfortunately Windows Vista 64-Bit (any version) does NOT work yet.)
7) Pace drivers. Attention anyone using Windows XP Service Pack 2: You must be using Protools 6.4 cs 9 or higher AND the latest pace driver or you will have the blue screen of death or a complete system reboot when you start Protools. You can get the latest pace driver at paceap.com for free.

Just a few more little things, don’t be so angry when posting your problem. I know you are frustrated but the people here didn’t intentionally (at least I don’t think so) cause your issue. We’re here to help. When you post an angry post ripping Digidesign and everyone in the industry, people are people with feelings and passions about their tools of choice and frankly reflect that anger right back at you. Your issue gets less attention than your attitude. Personally, I don’t like reading post that are in all uppercase. It is considered SHOUTING in on-line communities. I usually dismiss this as a hardware problem with the keyboard and until that is fixed, the Protools issue can wait.

Okay, so this is my 1000th post. I may have ruffled a few feathers here but it was all with good intentions. I am proud to be a part of this community and would like it to continue to be a great resource. If you see someone post and issue like I’ve discussed above, feel free to point them to this post.